> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://vaquill.ai/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Get statute full text > Get the full text of a statute section in HTML and plain text. **Cost**: 6 credits. You are only charged when text is returned: not-found (404), failed fetches, and sections whose text is not yet ingested (`available: false`) are all refunded. Works across USC, CFR, and state corpora. The text preserves formatting, cross-references, and paragraph numbering as published in the official source. **Response**: `available: true` with `html` + `plain`, or `available: false` with a `note` and `creditsConsumed: 0` when the full text is not yet ingested (metadata is still available from `/us/statutes/section/{actId}`). `sourceUrl` is where the government published this text: cite and verify against that, not against `source`, which names our storage backend. It is null when we hold no official link for the section; we never substitute a third-party compiler. ## Tables and figures (`markdown` / `tables` / `figures`) Where a section has a structured rendering, `source` is `r2_render` and the body keeps what a flat text extraction loses: tables as real tables and images at the position the publisher prints them. - `html` -- `` elements with `
`, `colspan` and `rowspan`, and `
` / `` elements whose images are hosted on `statutes-us.vaquill.ai` - `markdown` -- GitHub-flavoured Markdown, tables as pipe tables and figures as `![alt](url)` - `plain` -- tables as one tab-separated line per row, figures as `[Figure N: caption]` placeholders - `tables` / `figures` -- what the body contains, in document order. Each figure carries its hosted `url` and its offset into `markdown` and `plain`, so you can place images in your own layout. A figure we could not fetch is listed with `status: "unavailable"` and keeps its caption in the text. - `hasTables` / `hasFigures` -- quick flags A section in a covered corpus that has no table and no figure returns `tables: []`, `figures: []` and both flags false, with its text in `html` and `plain` as before. Where a corpus has no structured rendering yet, those fields are null, meaning "not known", not "none": a table may still be present in `html`. `markdown` is returned only for `format=all` or `format=markdown`: the default `format=both` leaves it out, because it is a third full copy of the text. `format=markdown` returns only `markdown`, and falls back to `plain` with a `note` when the section has no structured rendering. The price is the same whichever format you ask for. ## Telling the law from the apparatus (`content` / `sourceCredit` / `notes`) `plain` and `html` are the WHOLE body as the publisher prints it: the operative text, then the source credit, then the notes apparatus (historical and revision notes, committee reports, editorial notes, amendments, effective-date notes). For **United States Code** sections that body is mostly not the law: measured 2026-09-02, the operative text is a median 46% of it across USC, and as little as 3.4% on `17 U.S.C. § 107`. So the granule is split into three additional fields, using the field delimiters GPO publishes in the source: - `content` -- the operative text, and nothing else - `sourceCredit` -- the credit line, e.g. `(Pub. L. 94-553, ...)` - `notes` -- the apparatus, kept because it is the legislative history Use `content` if you are feeding sections to a model: the full body invites it to quote a 1992 amendment note as the law in force. Two `format` values act on the split, and the difference between them is how many bytes cross the wire, not what the law says: - `format=content` drops `plain`/`html` and returns all three split fields. The apparatus is still on the response, because for a legislative-history or effective-date question it IS the answer. - `format=operative` drops `notes` as well, returning `content` + `sourceCredit` and nothing else. Measured on `17 U.S.C. § 107`: 95,217 bytes at `both`, 61,003 at `plain`, 30,545 at `content`, 1,564 at `operative`. Same 6 credits either way -- the fetch is identical, so this buys bandwidth and prompt budget, not a discount. Reach for `operative` when you are putting the law in front of a model or a reader and the notes are noise. Reach for `content` when you may need to read the apparatus but want to keep it clearly separated from the law. ⚠️ USC only. CFR and the state corpora carry no equivalent structure in their sources, so all three fields are null there and `plain` remains the whole body. Null means "we cannot split this reliably", never "this section is empty". Both `content` and `operative` fall back to serving `plain` with an explanatory `note` on a corpus that cannot be split, rather than returning a response that claims to carry the text and does not. Pass `structured=true` to also get `markdown` (the body as nested Markdown lists) and `subsections` (a tree you can address by pincite, e.g. `(b)(2)`, each node carrying its pincite path and full pinpoint citation). Same cost. ## Point-in-time (`asOf`) Pass `asOf=YYYY-MM-DD` to get the text as it stood on that date instead of today's. Same cost. **One parameter, two engines, and `asOf.engine` says which one answered.** Read it before anything else in the block, because the two make different promises and `isBounded` does not mean the same thing under each. `engine: "stored_edition"` -- we hold the publisher's own printed editions for this corpus and return one verbatim. CFR annual editions, the US Code, the Copyright Compendium and OFAC FAQs. Here `isBounded: true` means your date fell inside an edition we actually hold, which is a verified published printing. Coverage under this engine is ENUMERATED, not continuous, and outside the CFR annual editions it is currently sparse. A date in a gap between two held editions returns `source: "unavailable"`, `isBounded: false`, no text, and an `outOfCoverageReason` naming what we do hold. It is never answered from a neighbouring edition, because the text may have changed in the gap. **For the US Code this is the common case today: most historical dates fall between the editions we hold and are reported out of coverage, with `outOfCoverageReason` naming the editions that are available.** Do not read the presence of this parameter as full US Code point-in-time coverage. `engine: "observed_change"` -- every other corpus. **A reconstruction, not an archive.** The corpus holds one current text per citation; an earlier one is rebuilt from the before-side of the first change we OBSERVED after your date, through the same resolver the watch diff uses. Here `isBounded: true` is the WEAK claim, described below. The `asOf` block reports: - `source` -- on `observed_change`: `live` (nothing captured after your date, so today's text stood then), `reconstructed`, or `unavailable`. On `stored_edition`: `published` or `unavailable` - `outOfCoverageReason` -- why no text came back, when none did - `basisChangeId` -- the change event this answer rests on, readable at `/us/statutes/section/{actId}/changes` - `observedFrom` -- how far back the evidence reaches for this section - `isBounded` -- **read this one, and read `engine` first.** On `observed_change`, true means we observed no change affecting your date, which is not the same as there having been none: capture began long after the corpus did and is per-source. On `stored_edition` it is inverted and stronger, as above: true means a held edition governed your date. `html` is never returned on this path: the text is plain, and synthesising markup the publisher never printed would be a wrong answer on the endpoint whose job is fidelity. A section that did not exist on that date returns `available: false` with `asOf.existed: false` and IS charged, the same way an unresolved citation is charged on `/resolve`: a confident negative is the answer. On `observed_change`, a section we know changed but cannot rebuild returns `source: "unavailable"` and is refunded. On `stored_edition`, an out-of-coverage date is an ANSWER about what we hold and is charged, which is the same rule the CFR annual editions have always followed. ## OpenAPI ````yaml https://api.vaquill.ai/external/openapi.json get /api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/body openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: Vaquill Developer API description: >- Public API for legal statutes and legislation. **Authentication**: Pass your API key as `Authorization: Bearer vq_key_...` (preferred) or in the `X-API-Key` header. The `api_key` query parameter also works where a header cannot be set, but a URL ends up in logs and browser history. Sending two different keys in one request is rejected with a 401. **Credits**: Each call costs API credits. See `GET /api/v1/api-credits/pricing` for the full pricing matrix. ## Jurisdictions | Jurisdiction | Coverage | `countryCode` | |---|---|---| | **United States** | USC and the Statutes at Large, the CFR and its annual editions, all 52 state and territory statutory codes (50 states plus DC and Puerto Rico), state administrative regulations, court rules, federal and state constitutions, federal agency guidance and adjudications, the Federal Register, the Sentencing Guidelines and US tax treaties. | `US` | See the full [Coverage page](https://www.vaquill.ai/docs/api-guide/coverage) for the jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown, or call `/us/statutes/coverage` for live counts. Coverage is per (jurisdiction, corpusType) pair, so treat that endpoint as the authoritative list rather than this summary. ## Endpoints - **US Statutes**: Search and retrieve any of the corpora above with full text, resolve a citation to its exact section, browse the statutory hierarchy, read a section as it stood on a past date, and follow its change history, cross-references and defined terms - **Board Watches**: Subscribe to a corpus source and get a webhook or email when it refreshes with real changes (free, API key required) - **Pricing**: Credit costs per endpoint (no auth required) ## Rate limits Limits are enforced per API key and scale with your plan. A `429` response includes a `Retry-After` header. | Plan | Per minute | Per hour | Per day | |---|---|---|---| | Vaquill API Pro | 60 | 1,000 | 2,000 | | Vaquill API Business | 150 | 2,500 | 10,000 | For full documentation, visit the [API Reference](https://www.vaquill.ai/docs/api-reference/). version: 1.0.0 contact: name: Vaquill API Support url: https://www.vaquill.ai email: support@vaquill.ai license: name: Proprietary url: https://www.vaquill.ai/terms termsOfService: https://www.vaquill.ai/terms servers: - url: https://api.vaquill.ai description: Production security: - ApiKeyAuth: [] - ApiKeyHeader: [] - ApiKeyQuery: [] tags: - name: US Statutes description: >- Search and retrieve US primary law. Covers the United States Code and the Statutes at Large, the Code of Federal Regulations and its annual editions, state statutory codes and administrative regulations, federal and state constitutions, court rules, Federal Register rules and Presidential documents, federal and state agency guidance, agency adjudications, state Attorney General opinions, the Sentencing Guidelines and US tax treaties. Scope a search with the `corpusType` filter, and call `/us/statutes/coverage` for the live jurisdiction-by-corpusType list. - **Search**: Search across all USC, CFR, state, and regulatory sections - **Section**: Get metadata, citation, hierarchy, and source links for a specific section - **Body**: Get the full text of a section - **Enactments**: Which state session laws a publisher's own tables list against a section (supported jurisdictions only, never a complete history) - name: US Session Laws description: >- State session laws: the acts of each legislature as they were enacted, chapter by chapter, before they are folded into a code. A session law is what the governor signs. It carries the act's own text, including the language it strikes and inserts, its approval and effective dates, and, where the publisher prints one, the code sections it changes. That makes it the source for "which act changed this section, and when did it take effect". Every act has a permanent `sessionLawId` (for example `SSL_MN_2025R_G_Y2025_C1`, Minnesota Laws 2025, regular session, chapter 1) whether or not we hold its text, and a citation or bill number such as `S.F.No. 1552` is accepted where an id goes. v1 serves STATE acts only. Federal session laws (the Statutes at Large, `SAL_` ids) are served by `/us/statutes/section`, and `/us/statutes/resolve` points a session-law citation here. **Start here**: check `/us/statutes/coverage` (free) for what we hold per state: each jurisdiction's `sessionLaws` block lists its sessions, which are complete or only partly collected, and the `series` and `instrumentTypes` that exist. Then **List** a session or a date range to get ids, **Get** one act for its record, then **Body** for its text. A law missing from a partly collected session is a free 404 (`session_not_fully_collected`), not proof it does not exist. - **List**: everything enacted in a state's session, approved in a window, or taking effect on a date - **Get**: one act by id or by citation; dates (`effectiveDates` is always a list), sources and the code sections it affects - **Body**: the act's text as printed, paged by cursor, with amendatory markup preserved where the publisher printed it - **Batch**: up to 50 ids or citations in one call, the same record as Get, billed per law served, with every miss listed and its reason - **Changes**: a sync feed of the registry over an integer cursor (`sinceId`): what began to be served, was corrected, withdrawn or merged The reverse link, from a code section to the acts a publisher's own tables list against it, is `GET /us/statutes/section/{actId}/enactments`. - name: Board Watches description: >- Law-change alerts. Subscribe to a **board** (a tracked corpus source, identified by `corpusType` plus an optional `state`) and get a webhook or email whenever it refreshes with real changes, naming the exact sections that changed. Fetch old-vs-new text for any amended section via the change diff. Boards refresh on their own existing cadence; watching one does not change how often it refreshes. Every endpoint here is **free**: authenticated by API key and rate-limited, but not credit-metered. See the [Law Change Alerts guide](https://www.vaquill.ai/docs/api-guide/alerts) for the full walkthrough. - name: Pricing description: >- Credit pricing and conversion rates. No authentication required. 1 credit = $0.01 USD. - name: Credits description: >- Your own credit balance: what is spendable right now, where it came from, and what is about to expire. Free and never charged, so it is safe to poll for low-balance alerting or to pre-flight a batch job. externalDocs: description: Full API Reference url: https://www.vaquill.ai/docs/api-reference/ paths: /api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/body: get: tags: - US Statutes summary: Get statute full text description: >- Get the full text of a statute section in HTML and plain text. **Cost**: 6 credits. You are only charged when text is returned: not-found (404), failed fetches, and sections whose text is not yet ingested (`available: false`) are all refunded. Works across USC, CFR, and state corpora. The text preserves formatting, cross-references, and paragraph numbering as published in the official source. **Response**: `available: true` with `html` + `plain`, or `available: false` with a `note` and `creditsConsumed: 0` when the full text is not yet ingested (metadata is still available from `/us/statutes/section/{actId}`). `sourceUrl` is where the government published this text: cite and verify against that, not against `source`, which names our storage backend. It is null when we hold no official link for the section; we never substitute a third-party compiler. ## Tables and figures (`markdown` / `tables` / `figures`) Where a section has a structured rendering, `source` is `r2_render` and the body keeps what a flat text extraction loses: tables as real tables and images at the position the publisher prints them. - `html` -- `` elements with `
`, `colspan` and `rowspan`, and `
` / `` elements whose images are hosted on `statutes-us.vaquill.ai` - `markdown` -- GitHub-flavoured Markdown, tables as pipe tables and figures as `![alt](url)` - `plain` -- tables as one tab-separated line per row, figures as `[Figure N: caption]` placeholders - `tables` / `figures` -- what the body contains, in document order. Each figure carries its hosted `url` and its offset into `markdown` and `plain`, so you can place images in your own layout. A figure we could not fetch is listed with `status: "unavailable"` and keeps its caption in the text. - `hasTables` / `hasFigures` -- quick flags A section in a covered corpus that has no table and no figure returns `tables: []`, `figures: []` and both flags false, with its text in `html` and `plain` as before. Where a corpus has no structured rendering yet, those fields are null, meaning "not known", not "none": a table may still be present in `html`. `markdown` is returned only for `format=all` or `format=markdown`: the default `format=both` leaves it out, because it is a third full copy of the text. `format=markdown` returns only `markdown`, and falls back to `plain` with a `note` when the section has no structured rendering. The price is the same whichever format you ask for. ## Telling the law from the apparatus (`content` / `sourceCredit` / `notes`) `plain` and `html` are the WHOLE body as the publisher prints it: the operative text, then the source credit, then the notes apparatus (historical and revision notes, committee reports, editorial notes, amendments, effective-date notes). For **United States Code** sections that body is mostly not the law: measured 2026-09-02, the operative text is a median 46% of it across USC, and as little as 3.4% on `17 U.S.C. § 107`. So the granule is split into three additional fields, using the field delimiters GPO publishes in the source: - `content` -- the operative text, and nothing else - `sourceCredit` -- the credit line, e.g. `(Pub. L. 94-553, ...)` - `notes` -- the apparatus, kept because it is the legislative history Use `content` if you are feeding sections to a model: the full body invites it to quote a 1992 amendment note as the law in force. Two `format` values act on the split, and the difference between them is how many bytes cross the wire, not what the law says: - `format=content` drops `plain`/`html` and returns all three split fields. The apparatus is still on the response, because for a legislative-history or effective-date question it IS the answer. - `format=operative` drops `notes` as well, returning `content` + `sourceCredit` and nothing else. Measured on `17 U.S.C. § 107`: 95,217 bytes at `both`, 61,003 at `plain`, 30,545 at `content`, 1,564 at `operative`. Same 6 credits either way -- the fetch is identical, so this buys bandwidth and prompt budget, not a discount. Reach for `operative` when you are putting the law in front of a model or a reader and the notes are noise. Reach for `content` when you may need to read the apparatus but want to keep it clearly separated from the law. ⚠️ USC only. CFR and the state corpora carry no equivalent structure in their sources, so all three fields are null there and `plain` remains the whole body. Null means "we cannot split this reliably", never "this section is empty". Both `content` and `operative` fall back to serving `plain` with an explanatory `note` on a corpus that cannot be split, rather than returning a response that claims to carry the text and does not. Pass `structured=true` to also get `markdown` (the body as nested Markdown lists) and `subsections` (a tree you can address by pincite, e.g. `(b)(2)`, each node carrying its pincite path and full pinpoint citation). Same cost. ## Point-in-time (`asOf`) Pass `asOf=YYYY-MM-DD` to get the text as it stood on that date instead of today's. Same cost. **One parameter, two engines, and `asOf.engine` says which one answered.** Read it before anything else in the block, because the two make different promises and `isBounded` does not mean the same thing under each. `engine: "stored_edition"` -- we hold the publisher's own printed editions for this corpus and return one verbatim. CFR annual editions, the US Code, the Copyright Compendium and OFAC FAQs. Here `isBounded: true` means your date fell inside an edition we actually hold, which is a verified published printing. Coverage under this engine is ENUMERATED, not continuous, and outside the CFR annual editions it is currently sparse. A date in a gap between two held editions returns `source: "unavailable"`, `isBounded: false`, no text, and an `outOfCoverageReason` naming what we do hold. It is never answered from a neighbouring edition, because the text may have changed in the gap. **For the US Code this is the common case today: most historical dates fall between the editions we hold and are reported out of coverage, with `outOfCoverageReason` naming the editions that are available.** Do not read the presence of this parameter as full US Code point-in-time coverage. `engine: "observed_change"` -- every other corpus. **A reconstruction, not an archive.** The corpus holds one current text per citation; an earlier one is rebuilt from the before-side of the first change we OBSERVED after your date, through the same resolver the watch diff uses. Here `isBounded: true` is the WEAK claim, described below. The `asOf` block reports: - `source` -- on `observed_change`: `live` (nothing captured after your date, so today's text stood then), `reconstructed`, or `unavailable`. On `stored_edition`: `published` or `unavailable` - `outOfCoverageReason` -- why no text came back, when none did - `basisChangeId` -- the change event this answer rests on, readable at `/us/statutes/section/{actId}/changes` - `observedFrom` -- how far back the evidence reaches for this section - `isBounded` -- **read this one, and read `engine` first.** On `observed_change`, true means we observed no change affecting your date, which is not the same as there having been none: capture began long after the corpus did and is per-source. On `stored_edition` it is inverted and stronger, as above: true means a held edition governed your date. `html` is never returned on this path: the text is plain, and synthesising markup the publisher never printed would be a wrong answer on the endpoint whose job is fidelity. A section that did not exist on that date returns `available: false` with `asOf.existed: false` and IS charged, the same way an unresolved citation is charged on `/resolve`: a confident negative is the answer. On `observed_change`, a section we know changed but cannot rebuild returns `source: "unavailable"` and is refunded. On `stored_edition`, an out-of-coverage date is an ANSWER about what we hold and is charged, which is the same rule the CFR annual editions have always followed. operationId: get_section_body_api_v1_us_statutes_section__act_id__body_get parameters: - name: act_id in: path required: true schema: type: string minLength: 3 maxLength: 200 description: >- Section identifier, e.g. `USC_T42_C21_S1983` (Title 42, Chapter 21, Section 1983, which a lawyer writes as 42 U.S.C. § 1983). Take it from a `/us/statutes/search` or `/us/statutes/resolve` result. A citation also works here: `26 U.S.C. § 1`, `42 USC 1983` or `Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5` is resolved with the same resolver `/resolve` uses, and the section is served. A citation costs this endpoint's price PLUS the `/resolve` price (2 credits), charged as its own line whether or not it resolves, exactly as `/resolve` charges; that is the same total as calling `/resolve` and then this endpoint, in one round trip. An exact act_id costs only this endpoint's price. When a citation resolves, or when the id only matched after surrounding whitespace, quotes or a trailing period were removed, the response carries `resolvedFrom` saying what your input was matched as. Check it the way you would check a `/resolve` answer. A citation containing `/` cannot travel in a URL path segment; resolve it with `GET /us/statutes/resolve` instead. Do not assemble an id from a citation: the title and section are derivable, but the CHAPTER is not, so `USC_T26_S1` misses. A miss returns 404 with `reason` and, where the section exists under another id, `didYouMean`. State session laws (acts as enacted, ids starting `SSL_`) are not code sections: read them at `/us/session-laws/{sessionLawId}`. examples: - CFR_T17_P240_S240_10b5_1 title: Act Id description: >- Section identifier, e.g. `USC_T42_C21_S1983` (Title 42, Chapter 21, Section 1983, which a lawyer writes as 42 U.S.C. § 1983). Take it from a `/us/statutes/search` or `/us/statutes/resolve` result. A citation also works here: `26 U.S.C. § 1`, `42 USC 1983` or `Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5` is resolved with the same resolver `/resolve` uses, and the section is served. A citation costs this endpoint's price PLUS the `/resolve` price (2 credits), charged as its own line whether or not it resolves, exactly as `/resolve` charges; that is the same total as calling `/resolve` and then this endpoint, in one round trip. An exact act_id costs only this endpoint's price. When a citation resolves, or when the id only matched after surrounding whitespace, quotes or a trailing period were removed, the response carries `resolvedFrom` saying what your input was matched as. Check it the way you would check a `/resolve` answer. A citation containing `/` cannot travel in a URL path segment; resolve it with `GET /us/statutes/resolve` instead. Do not assemble an id from a citation: the title and section are derivable, but the CHAPTER is not, so `USC_T26_S1` misses. A miss returns 404 with `reason` and, where the section exists under another id, `didYouMean`. State session laws (acts as enacted, ids starting `SSL_`) are not code sections: read them at `/us/session-laws/{sessionLawId}`. - name: format in: query required: false schema: enum: - all - both - html - markdown - plain - content - operative type: string description: >- Which representations to return. `both` (the default) returns `html` and `plain`. A long section carries the same text twice that way, so `plain` or `html` alone roughly halves the payload. Cost is unchanged: the fetch is the same either way. `all` adds `markdown` where the section has a structured rendering. It is opt-in because it is a third full copy of the text (about 600,000 extra characters on `49 CFR 172.101`), which a model-facing client would pay for in tokens without asking. `markdown` returns only `markdown`. On a section with no structured rendering it falls back to `plain` with a `note` saying so, never to an empty body. `tables` and `figures` are returned on every format, because they are small and describe the text you received. `content` omits `html` and `plain` and returns the split fields (`content`, `sourceCredit`, `notes`). `operative` omits `notes` as well, leaving `content` + `sourceCredit`: the law and what enacted it, and nothing else. This is the smallest representation of a section, and on a note-heavy section it is the difference between a payload that fits in a prompt and one that does not. Measured on `17 U.S.C. § 107`: 95,217 bytes at `both`, 30,545 at `content`, 1,564 at `operative`, all for the same 6 credits. Only United States Code sections can be split, so on any other corpus both values fall back to returning `plain` with a `note` saying why -- `content` will be null there, so read `note` rather than assuming the section was empty. examples: - operative default: both title: Format description: >- Which representations to return. `both` (the default) returns `html` and `plain`. A long section carries the same text twice that way, so `plain` or `html` alone roughly halves the payload. Cost is unchanged: the fetch is the same either way. `all` adds `markdown` where the section has a structured rendering. It is opt-in because it is a third full copy of the text (about 600,000 extra characters on `49 CFR 172.101`), which a model-facing client would pay for in tokens without asking. `markdown` returns only `markdown`. On a section with no structured rendering it falls back to `plain` with a `note` saying so, never to an empty body. `tables` and `figures` are returned on every format, because they are small and describe the text you received. `content` omits `html` and `plain` and returns the split fields (`content`, `sourceCredit`, `notes`). `operative` omits `notes` as well, leaving `content` + `sourceCredit`: the law and what enacted it, and nothing else. This is the smallest representation of a section, and on a note-heavy section it is the difference between a payload that fits in a prompt and one that does not. Measured on `17 U.S.C. § 107`: 95,217 bytes at `both`, 30,545 at `content`, 1,564 at `operative`, all for the same 6 credits. Only United States Code sections can be split, so on any other corpus both values fall back to returning `plain` with a `note` saying why -- `content` will be null there, so read `note` rather than assuming the section was empty. - name: structured in: query required: false schema: type: boolean description: >- When true, also return a `subsections` tree parsed from the text for pincite addressing, and `markdown` as that tree rendered as nested Markdown lists. Same cost. `structured=true` OWNS `markdown`: on every `format`, and on every `source`, `markdown` is the nested-list rendering, never the table-preserving rendering a `r2_render` section otherwise returns for `format=all`/`markdown` (a `note` says so when that happens). Ask without `structured` for the tables. With `format=markdown` the nested lists are returned alone, without `html` or `plain`. examples: - true default: false title: Structured description: >- When true, also return a `subsections` tree parsed from the text for pincite addressing, and `markdown` as that tree rendered as nested Markdown lists. Same cost. `structured=true` OWNS `markdown`: on every `format`, and on every `source`, `markdown` is the nested-list rendering, never the table-preserving rendering a `r2_render` section otherwise returns for `format=all`/`markdown` (a `note` says so when that happens). Ask without `structured` for the tables. With `format=markdown` the nested lists are returned alone, without `html` or `plain`. - name: asOf in: query required: false schema: anyOf: - type: string pattern: ^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$ - type: 'null' description: >- Return the section's text as it stood on this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`) instead of today's. Same cost. **This is a reconstruction, not an archive.** The corpus holds one current text per citation; an earlier one is rebuilt from the before-side of the first change we OBSERVED after your date. The `asOf` block on the response says which version you got (`source`), what it rests on (`basisChangeId`), how far back the evidence reaches (`observedFrom`), and whether the answer is bounded by when capture began rather than by the law (`isBounded`). Read `isBounded` before citing the text. A section that did not exist yet returns `available: false` with `asOf.existed: false`, which is a real answer and is charged. A section we know changed but cannot rebuild returns `source: "unavailable"` and IS refunded, because you asked for a historical text and did not get one. A date that does not exist on a calendar (`2026-02-30`) is a 422 and is not charged. examples: - '2026-01-15' format: date title: Asof description: >- Return the section's text as it stood on this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`) instead of today's. Same cost. **This is a reconstruction, not an archive.** The corpus holds one current text per citation; an earlier one is rebuilt from the before-side of the first change we OBSERVED after your date. The `asOf` block on the response says which version you got (`source`), what it rests on (`basisChangeId`), how far back the evidence reaches (`observedFrom`), and whether the answer is bounded by when capture began rather than by the law (`isBounded`). Read `isBounded` before citing the text. A section that did not exist yet returns `available: false` with `asOf.existed: false`, which is a real answer and is charged. A section we know changed but cannot rebuild returns `source: "unavailable"` and IS refunded, because you asked for a historical text and did not get one. A date that does not exist on a calendar (`2026-02-30`) is a 422 and is not charged. responses: '200': description: Successful Response content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/StatuteBodyResponse' example: actId: USC_T42_C21_S1983 html: >-

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States ...

plain: >- Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured ... source: r2_s3 available: true processingTimeMs: 8.4 creditsConsumed: 6 '404': description: Section not found. `reason` says why and `didYouMean` what to send. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/StatuteSectionNotFoundError' '422': description: Validation Error content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/HTTPValidationError' components: schemas: StatuteBodyResponse: properties: actId: type: string title: Actid description: >- The act_id of the section served. Equal to your request unless `resolvedFrom` is set, in which case it is the id your citation or cleaned-up input resolved to. examples: - USC_T42_C21_S1983 html: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Html description: >- The section text as HTML. When `source` is `r2_render` this is our structured rendering of the publisher's source: real `` elements (with `
`, `colspan` and `rowspan`) and `
` / `` elements at the position the publisher prints them, with images hosted on `statutes-us.vaquill.ai`. When `source` is `r2_s3` this is the publisher's own markup (tables, paragraph structure, history lines), cut to the section's own content where we recognise the publisher's page layout. For any other `source` the text was not held as per-section HTML, and `html` carries the same text as `plain` with no markup. plain: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Plain description: Plain text version. source: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Source description: >- Which copy the text came from: `r2_render` (our structured rendering, carrying `markdown`, `tables` and `figures`), `r2_s3` (the publisher's page for this section), `r2_text` (our per-section text extraction), `qdrant_reconstructed` (reassembled from indexed passages), and on `asOf` requests `stored_edition` or `corpus_change_history`. A storage identifier, not a citation: cite `sourceUrl`. sourceUrl: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Sourceurl description: >- Where this text was published by the government, so the bytes you were served can be cited and verified against the official record. Null when we hold no publishable link for the section: a third-party compiler is never served here, and an absent link is the correct answer in that case. `source` is a storage identifier and is NOT a citation. examples: - >- https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title17/html/USCODE-2024-title17-chap1-sec107.htm content: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Content description: >- The OPERATIVE TEXT of the section, with the source credit and the notes apparatus removed. This is the law; `plain` is the law plus everything the publisher prints around it. Populated for **United States Code** sections, where GPO delimits the fields in the granule it publishes. Null for CFR and for state corpora, whose sources carry no equivalent structure -- null means "we cannot split this reliably", never "this section is empty", and `plain` is still the whole body. Worth using if you feed sections to a model: the operative text is a median 46% of `plain` across USC and as little as 3.4% (`17 U.S.C. § 107`, where nearly all of the body is committee reports and amendment notes). A model handed the full body can quote a 1992 amendment note as the law in force. examples: - >- Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use... sourceCredit: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Sourcecredit description: >- The publisher's credit line for the section, e.g. `(Pub. L. 94-553, title I, §101, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2546; ...)`. Split out of the body rather than left inside it. The same value is also on `GET /us/statutes/section/{actId}` as `sourceCredit`; it is repeated here so a caller fetching the text does not need a second call to know what enacted it. examples: - (Pub. L. 94-553, title I, §101, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2546) notes: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Notes description: >- The notes apparatus the publisher prints after the section: Historical and Revision Notes, committee reports, Editorial Notes (codification and amendments), Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries (effective dates), and any guidelines reprinted by the editors. Kept, not discarded: it is the legislative history, and it is the reason a section's body can be twenty times the length of the law. It is simply NOT the operative text, so it is served as its own field. Null where we cannot split the body. Also null, deliberately, when you pass `format=operative`: that is the one format that asks us to leave the apparatus off the wire. Null there means "not sent", not "none exists" -- the same request at `format=content` returns it. examples: - |- Historical and Revision Notes house report no. 94–1476... available: type: boolean title: Available description: Whether full text is available. default: true note: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Note description: Note if text is unavailable. markdown: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Markdown description: >- The body as GitHub-flavoured Markdown. When `source` is `r2_render` this is the structured rendering: tables as GFM pipe tables (a caption line above, footnotes below, multi-level headers joined as `Parent / Child`) and figures as `![alt](url)` at their position in the text. Returned only when `format` is `all` or `markdown`, not on the default `both`, where it would be a third full copy. For a section with no structured rendering, `markdown` is null unless you pass `structured=true`, in which case it is the body as nested Markdown lists (the pre-existing behaviour). When both exist the structured rendering wins, because it is the one that keeps the tables; `subsections` is returned either way. tables: anyOf: - items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/BodyTable' type: array - type: 'null' title: Tables description: >- The tables in the body, in document order, with their size. An empty list means the section has none. Null means not known: the section's corpus has no structured rendering yet, so a table may still be present in `html`. figures: anyOf: - items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/BodyFigure' type: array - type: 'null' title: Figures description: >- The figures, equations and form images in the body, in document order, with hosted image urls and each one's offset into `markdown` and `plain`. An empty list means the section has none. Null means not known: the section's corpus has no structured rendering yet. hasTables: anyOf: - type: boolean - type: 'null' title: Hastables description: >- True when the body contains at least one table, false when it contains none. Null when not known, because the section's corpus has no structured rendering yet. hasFigures: anyOf: - type: boolean - type: 'null' title: Hasfigures description: >- True when the body contains at least one figure, equation or form image, false when it contains none. Null when not known, because the section's corpus has no structured rendering yet. subsections: anyOf: - items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/SubsectionNode' type: array - type: 'null' title: Subsections description: >- The section broken into its lettered and numbered subsections, nested as they appear in the text. Use it to quote or link a single clause rather than the whole section. Present only when `structured=true`. asOf: anyOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/AsOfProvenance' - type: 'null' description: >- Present only when the request passed `asOf`. Says WHICH version of the section you are holding and how far the evidence for it goes. Read `isBounded` before treating the text as the law on that date. resolvedFrom: anyOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/SectionIdentifierResolution' - type: 'null' description: >- Null when the section is exactly the act_id you sent. Otherwise how your input was matched: a citation, or an act_id with transport damage (whitespace, quotes, a trailing period) removed. processingTimeMs: type: number title: Processingtimems description: >- Server-side time for this request in milliseconds, excluding network transit. Useful for spotting a slow query; not billed on. default: 0 examples: - 240.5 creditsConsumed: type: number title: Creditsconsumed description: >- Credits actually charged for this call. Read it rather than assuming the list price: failed and refunded work bills 0, and batch endpoints charge per item returned, so a partial result costs less than a full one. default: 0 examples: - 4 type: object required: - actId title: StatuteBodyResponse description: Full text of a statute section in HTML and/or plain text. StatuteSectionNotFoundError: properties: detail: type: string title: Detail description: >- Human-readable reason, safe to show a user. Branch on `reason`, not on this string. examples: - >- Section not found. This id does not exist, but the section does, ... actId: type: string title: Actid description: The identifier exactly as you sent it. reason: type: string enum: - assembled_id - unresolved_citation - not_in_corpus - missing_act_id - state_session_law title: Reason description: >- `assembled_id` -- the id does not exist but the section does, under the ids in `didYouMean` (usually an id built by hand from a citation, or sent in the wrong case). `unresolved_citation` -- the input is a citation and resolves to nothing we hold; check it with `/us/statutes/resolve`. `not_in_corpus` -- nothing matched. `missing_act_id` -- the URL left the id out, so an endpoint name (`body`, `changes`, ...) sits where the id goes; `detail` names the path you meant. Never charged. `state_session_law` -- the id starts `SSL_`: it names a STATE session law (an act as enacted), which is not a code section; read it at `GET /us/session-laws/{sessionLawId}`. examples: - assembled_id didYouMean: items: type: string type: array title: Didyoumean description: >- Real act_ids for the section your id pointed at, best first, at most 3. examples: - - USC_T26_C1_S1 type: object required: - detail - actId - reason title: StatuteSectionNotFoundError description: The 404 from any `/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/...` route. HTTPValidationError: properties: detail: items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ValidationError' type: array title: Detail type: object title: HTTPValidationError BodyTable: properties: tableId: type: string title: Tableid examples: - t1 order: type: integer title: Order description: 1-based position among the section's tables. default: 0 caption: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Caption description: The table's caption, when it has one. rows: type: integer title: Rows description: Row count, header rows included. default: 0 cols: type: integer title: Cols description: Column count. default: 0 type: object required: - tableId title: BodyTable description: One table inside a rendered section body. BodyFigure: properties: figureId: type: string title: Figureid description: >- Stable id for this figure, also carried on the `
` element in `html`. Deterministic, so it does not change between renders of the same source. examples: - fig_3f2a9c0d1e4b5a67 kind: type: string enum: - figure - equation - image - form title: Kind description: What the image is. `equation` renders inline in the text. default: figure caption: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Caption description: The publisher's caption, when it prints one. alt: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Alt description: Alternative text for the image. url: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Url description: >- Where the image is hosted, always on `statutes-us.vaquill.ai`. A format a browser cannot display (TIFF, EPS, PDF) is served as a PNG. Null when `status` is `unavailable`. examples: - https://statutes-us.vaquill.ai/figures/9b2e...c41.gif sourceUrl: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Sourceurl description: >- The image as the government publisher serves it. Use it for a "view at source" link, especially when `status` is `unavailable`. Null when we hold no publishable link. examples: - https://www.ecfr.gov/graphics/er13my11.020.gif width: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Width description: Pixel width of the hosted image. height: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Height description: Pixel height of the hosted image. mimeType: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Mimetype examples: - image/gif order: type: integer title: Order description: 1-based position among the section's figures. default: 0 offsetMarkdown: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Offsetmarkdown description: >- Character offset of this figure's placeholder in `markdown`, so a client can splice the image into its own layout. offsetPlain: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Offsetplain description: >- Character offset of this figure's `[Figure N: ...]` placeholder in `plain`. status: type: string enum: - hosted - unavailable title: Status description: >- `unavailable` means the publisher's image could not be fetched. The figure is still listed, and its caption and placeholder stay in the text, so a missing figure is never silently dropped. default: hosted type: object required: - figureId title: BodyFigure description: One figure, equation or form image inside a rendered section body. SubsectionNode: properties: label: type: string title: Label description: The marker as printed, e.g. `(b)` or `(2)`. pincite: type: string title: Pincite description: >- Full path to this subsection from the top of the section, e.g. `(b)(2)`. Append it to the section's citation to point at this exact passage: 42 U.S.C. § 1983(b)(2). Lawyers call that a pincite, a citation to the precise place rather than the whole section. examples: - (b)(2) type: type: string title: Type description: >- The drafting level of this node: `subsection`, `paragraph`, `subparagraph`, `clause`, or `subclause`. Use it to render the marker style (letters, numbers, roman). default: subsection citation: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Citation description: >- Full pinpoint citation when the section citation is known, e.g. `42 U.S.C. § 1983(b)(2)`. text: type: string title: Text description: This node's own text, excluding nested children. default: '' children: items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/SubsectionNode' type: array title: Children description: Nested subsections one level deeper. type: object required: - label - pincite title: SubsectionNode description: One node in a section's subsection tree (see `/body?structured=true`). AsOfProvenance: properties: requested: type: string title: Requested description: The date you asked for, echoed back (`YYYY-MM-DD`). examples: - '2026-01-15' engine: type: string enum: - stored_edition - observed_change title: Engine description: >- WHICH BACKEND ANSWERED. `asOf` is one parameter over two engines and they make different promises. `stored_edition`: the answer is a publisher's own printed edition of the text, held verbatim. Used wherever we hold published editions, which today is `corpusType=CFR_ANNUAL` (annual editions per title), the US Code, the Copyright Compendium and OFAC FAQs. The date is resolved to a held edition and that edition's text is returned as printed. Coverage under this engine is per corpus and is NOT continuous. The CFR annual editions tile the calendar per title; the others are ENUMERATED editions with gaps between them. A date that falls in a gap returns `source: "unavailable"` with `outOfCoverageReason` and NO text, rather than the neighbouring edition, because the text may have changed in the gap. For the US Code in particular, most dates are currently out of coverage: see `outOfCoverageReason` for which editions we hold. `observed_change`: the answer is RECONSTRUCTED from changes we observed, and reaches back only as far as capture began for that source. Every other corpus. Read this before `isBounded`, which does not make the same claim on both engines. default: observed_change examples: - observed_change source: type: string enum: - live - reconstructed - unavailable - published title: Source description: >- The detail WITHIN the engine above. On `observed_change` -- `live`: we captured no change to this section after your date, so today's text is what stood then as far as we ever saw. `reconstructed`: rebuilt from the before-side of the first change we captured after your date. `unavailable`: we know it changed but cannot rebuild the earlier text, so no text is returned. That is different from the section being empty, and different again from it not existing. On `stored_edition` -- `published`: an edition we hold answered, verbatim. `unavailable`: the date is out of coverage for this section and no text is returned, and `outOfCoverageReason` says why in a sentence. Out of coverage means the date falls outside every edition we hold, or inside a gap between two of them; it is never answered from a neighbouring edition. examples: - reconstructed existed: type: boolean title: Existed description: >- False when the earliest thing we ever captured for this section is its ADDITION and that addition postdates your date, so it demonstrably did not exist yet. A real answer, not a miss. basisChangeId: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Basischangeid description: >- The change event whose before-side supplied this text. Null when `source` is `live`. Pass it to `/us/statutes/section/{actId}/changes` to see the event this answer rests on. examples: - 91 observedFrom: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Observedfrom description: >- The earliest change we ever captured for this section. Null when we captured none. This is how far back the reconstruction can see, and it is a property of when capture began for this source, not of the age of the law. examples: - '2026-08-09T04:10:00Z' resolvedEditionYear: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Resolvededitionyear description: >- `stored_edition` only. The revision year actually served, read from the edition's own printed revision statement. 🔴 This is NOT always the year the schedule computes: a publisher reprints an unchanged volume into the next year without re-dating it, so the 2024 printing of 4 CFR is the January 1 2019 revision. Render THIS year, never `scheduledEditionYear`. examples: - 2019 scheduledEditionYear: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Schedulededitionyear description: >- `stored_edition` only. The edition the revision schedule says SHOULD cover your date. Differs from `resolvedEditionYear` whenever the publisher reprinted an unchanged volume. Exposed so the disagreement is auditable, not so it can be displayed. examples: - 2024 editionsObserved: anyOf: - items: type: integer type: array - type: 'null' title: Editionsobserved description: >- `stored_edition` only. Every edition year in which this exact text was observed, enumerated. An ENUMERATION, not a range: a year between the first and last that is absent here is an edition nobody read, and a date resolving to it is reported out of coverage rather than answered from a neighbour. examples: - - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 outOfCoverageReason: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Outofcoveragereason description: >- Why no text was returned, in a sentence safe to show a reader. Null when text was returned. isBounded: type: boolean title: Isbounded description: >- ⚠️ This flag does NOT make the same claim on both engines. Read `engine` first. On `stored_edition`, TRUE means your date falls inside the editions we actually parsed for this title, so the text is a verified published printing rather than an inference. FALSE means out of coverage, and no text is returned. On `observed_change`, TRUE means: we observed no change affecting your date, and that is NOT the same as there having been none. Set when your date predates `observedFrom`, or when we captured no change for this section at all. Change capture began long after the corpus did and is per-source, so a bounded answer is our best reconstruction rather than a verified historical text. Surface it. Rendering a bounded answer as authoritative point-in-time law makes a claim we did not make. coverage: type: string title: Coverage description: Prose statement of the same limit, safe to show a reader verbatim. type: object required: - requested - source - existed - isBounded - coverage title: AsOfProvenance description: >- Where an `asOf` body came from, and how far the evidence reaches. Every field but `text` on the parent exists so this answer cannot be over-read. The corpus holds ONE current text per citation; an earlier one is RECONSTRUCTED from observed changes, and observation started when it started. SectionIdentifierResolution: properties: input: type: string title: Input description: The identifier exactly as you sent it. examples: - 26 U.S.C. § 1 actId: type: string title: Actid description: The act_id it matched. Send this next time to skip resolution. examples: - USC_T26_C1_S1 via: type: string enum: - normalized_id - citation title: Via description: >- `citation` -- your input was a citation, resolved with the same resolver as `GET /us/statutes/resolve`. Check it the way you would check a `/resolve` answer. `normalized_id` -- your input was an act_id carrying surrounding whitespace, quotes, a trailing period or double percent-encoding, which were removed. examples: - citation subsection: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Subsection description: >- The pincite your citation carried, e.g. `(h)(11)` for `26 U.S.C. § 1(h)(11)`. The WHOLE section is served; use `structured=true` on `/body` to address the subsection. examples: - (h)(11) type: object required: - input - actId - via title: SectionIdentifierResolution description: >- How the identifier you sent was matched, when it was not an exact act_id. Present only when the input did NOT match as sent. Absent (null) means the section is exactly the act_id in your request. ValidationError: properties: loc: items: anyOf: - type: string - type: integer type: array title: Location msg: type: string title: Message type: type: string title: Error Type input: title: Input ctx: type: object title: Context type: object required: - loc - msg - type title: ValidationError securitySchemes: ApiKeyAuth: type: http scheme: bearer bearerFormat: vq_key_* description: >- API key issued from the developer dashboard. Pass as `Authorization: Bearer vq_key_...` (preferred). ApiKeyHeader: type: apiKey in: header name: X-API-Key description: >- The same API key as a bare header value: `X-API-Key: vq_key_...`. Equivalent to the Bearer form. ApiKeyQuery: type: apiKey in: query name: api_key description: >- The same API key as a query parameter: `?api_key=vq_key_...`. Use only where you cannot set a header. A URL can end up in proxy and server logs, browser history and shared links, so prefer either header form, and rotate a key that has leaked. ```` This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.